User:FatJagm/WanderWiki
Global idea
The project aims at developping an application for Smartphone (such as Android…) which enables the user to create a tourist route or would directly suggest routes that have been already created. Those routes will be pictured with Wikipedia articles or his little sister WikiVoyage.
Thus the application will have several functions:
- Creating tourist routes.
- Proposing pertinent Wikipedia articles for the chosen route.
- Storing the routes designed , in order to suggest them to other users.
- Suggesting routes designed by other users
Route creation
The route can be created in several ways to facilitate the users' accessibility :
- The first possibility is the most natural and it is the one we decided to set up for the application. We could define it as a free creation by the user : the application will record the position of the “creator” while he is browsing the route that he wants to record, it enables the route creation by following the position. This solution, even if it's not very practical because the user has to do the route while recording, still has some strong pros: the route is accurate and the application does not create an eccentric route with impracticable paths.
- The second way of creation will be developed later. The user could here give the application location by which he wants to go by and thus the application will suggest him a route going through those points. This system as the advantage of being static to do this route. Besides, there is already a lot of application that enables you to do it (for instance creating routes for runners, etc.) some of them are opensource. This kind of creation has the drawback of giving to the “creator” a complete control over the route creation; this could lead to having incongruous routes
Display of Wikipedia articles
As said before, the tourist route will be illustrated with Wikipedia or Wikivoyages articles. In that respect, geographical data of articles will be used: when the user will come near the monument, the application will suggest to read the article so that he can access all information about the monument, culturally (Wikipedia articles) or practically (Wikivoyages articles)speaking. This part should not lead to major technical issues. The most difficult part will be the choice of the articles linked to the route during the creation: the userwho chooses to create a route by crossing it often does not know the area. So he does not necessarily know which are the key places, the reeavant monuments... According to the means used to create the route, there are different ways to tackle these issues:
- For the free creation, there are two possibilities. If the “creator” knows the area and creates this route to share and advertise an area he finds interesting to sightsee, he’ll be able to choose the Wikipedia articles displayed to the user.
- If the “creator” does not know the area, the application can suggest him to display articles from Wikipedia or Wikivoyages websites which "are close to the path" : a circle around the position will select the relevant articles thanks to the info-box. There is already a tool permitting to display Wikipedia articles located in the corresponding circle.
Storage of created routes
In order to build a solid database of routes, covering different countries & areas .. and with precise features (journey time, kind of route: historical, etc.) and enabling to share those routes, it is necessary to store them. We will use OpenStreetMap to store the traces made by the users.
Suggestion of routes from existing databases
Once many routes will have been created, users will have the possibility to choose the routes they would like to follow. This feature is the most complicated one because there is a lot of ways to suggest routes.
Otherwise, we thought about 3 ways to search a route :
- First, the application can suggest the routes which have their departure point next to the user.
- Then, we will link for each routes several tags which will describe the routes. So, the user will enter key words to find a convenient route.
- We can also suggest to the user the most popular routes or the routes published by the more active people.
Obviously, this criteria can be mixed to improve the research.